Teforia

A tea brewer machine connected with an application

Description

Teforia was a tea brewer that would supposedly yield the perfect cup of tea by combining traditional brewing with the power of smart technology. The app was connected to Wi-Fi, had Bluetooth capabilities and a designated mobile app to start the machine, gain info about the tea leaves, stats and an option to teak the brewing process. Teforia initially costed over $1000, the company also sold prepackaged leaf packets.

Stats

Category

Food and Beverage

Country

United States

Started

In 2014

Closed

By 2017

Number of Founders

Two

Name of Founders

Allen Han, Kris Efland

Number of Employees

Between 11 And 50

Number of Funding Rounds

2

Total Funding Amount

$17.1M

Number of Investors

9

Precise Cause of Failure

No Market Need

Business Outcome

Shut Down

Cause of Failure

The first reason why Teforia was deemed to fail despite the substantial capital it raised was the absence of market fit for the product. Even if tea enthusiast were so particular about their tea they would have thought twice about spending a $1K on a tea making machine. The problem was also the fact that according to some reviews the tea didn’t taste better than that made in the traditional manner. The accompanying sets of cups were also delicate and high maintenance, which defeated the stated purpose the app of making the tea ritual more convenient and enjoyable. The company claimed that people were not ready nor ‘learned’ enough to appreciate the fine details that made the product so needed.

It is also plausible to think that people became skeptic of smart kitchen products when, during the same period, a similarly high-priced machine that pressed vegetable to make the ‘perfect glass of fresh juice’, the Juicero, was publicly shown to be perfectly useless.

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Teforia was a tea brewer that would supposedly yield the perfect cup of tea by combining traditional brewing with the power of smart technology. The app was connected to Wi-Fi, had Bluetooth capabilities and a designated mobile app to start the machine, gain info about the tea leaves, stats and an option to teak the brewing process. Teforia initially costed over $1000, the company also sold prepackaged leaf packets.

Cause of Failure

The first reason why Teforia was deemed to fail despite the substantial capital it raised was the absence of market fit for the product. Even if tea enthusiast were so particular about their tea they would have thought twice about spending a $1K on a tea making machine. The problem was also the fact that according to some reviews the tea didn’t taste better than that made in the traditional manner. The accompanying sets of cups were also delicate and high maintenance, which defeated the stated purpose the app of making the tea ritual more convenient and enjoyable. The company claimed that people were not ready nor ‘learned’ enough to appreciate the fine details that made the product so needed.

It is also plausible to think that people became skeptic of smart kitchen products when, during the same period, a similarly high-priced machine that pressed vegetable to make the ‘perfect glass of fresh juice’, the Juicero, was publicly shown to be perfectly useless.